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At long last, Mojang is ready to release the Minecraft 1.7 Update, bringing loads of changes to the more than 12 million fans currently playing the Java version of Minecraft. Find out what's changed in Minecraft 1.7.2, and check out all of the patch notes from the latest Minecraft update. (PHOTO: Mojang)

Fri, 10/25/2013 - 09:27

Games

Minecraft 1.7.2 Update Now Live; Patch Notes Highlight Overhauled World Generator, New Plant Life And More

After months of waiting, the Minecraft 1.7 Update is finally ready to makes its highly-anticipated debut, and those who haven't been keeping up with Mojang's weekly Minecraft snapshots are likely to be blown away by the sheer number of changes introduced in Minecraft 1.7.2.

Nearly a dozen Minecraft snapshots preceded today's release of Minecraft 1.7.2, though Mojang didn't seem to take quite as long preparing the latest Minecraft patch as they did during development of Minecraft 1.6 earlier this year. While many fans are likely to focus much of their excitement on the game's all-new world generator, and/or the slew of new biomes created by the folks at Mojang, but there's quite a bit more than new land masses included in the Minecraft 1.7 Update.

In addition to the usual bevy of bug fixes, the Minecraft 1.7 Update also introduces a number of new plants and animals to the Minecraft universe, along with new potions and recipes derived from many of the same game additions. The Minecraft team also rewrote a number of vital game systems, vastly improving the in-game chat and options menus in the process, and even loosened the dimension requirements for newly-constructed Nether Portals.

In total, Nathan "Dinnerbone" Adams says that the Minecraft team rewrote approximately half a million lines of game code, a particularly staggering total when you consider that one of the most thorough updates in the history of Minecraft was also developed faster (3 months) than many of the game's previous patches.

-- The Resource Pack screen is now a split view to list selected and unselected resource packs - multiple resource packs can now be used simultaneously with higher priority resource packs getting to use eventual duplicate textures/files - Animation

-- Video Settings: Render Distance is now a slider ranging from 2 to 16 chunks, Max Framerate is now a slider ranging from 10 to 250 fps, Unlimited; Mipmapping can be set to levels 1 to 4 or disabled,Anisotropic Filtering can be set to 2, 4, 8, 16 or disabled - Screenshot

-- The language selection screen now features an option to force code font - Screenshot

-- Can now walk in one block tall spaces, but their hitbox remains the size of that of an adult

- Zombies

-- Don't cause as much lag as before

- Witches

-- Now also spawn like other hostile mobs

-- Can now drop Potions of Water Breathing

Be sure to check back with iDigitalTimes.com and follow Scott on Twitter for more on Minecraft as we continue to follow the development of Mojang's smash hit sandbox game in the months following the debut of the Minecraft 1.7 Update.

What do you think of all the changes introduced in the Minecraft 1.7 Update? Disappointed that a particular bug or game crash didn't get fixed in the latest Minecraft patch? Have an idea for a block or feature you'd like to see in an upcoming Minecraft update?